Building Partnerships in Tribal Child Care: A Letter from the Tribal Child Care Association of Calif

On March 28 and 29 the Executive Committee of the Tribal Child Care Association of California met to hold visioning exercises and revisit our strategic planning and our efforts to address the needs of Tribal child care programs in California. “The reauthorization of CCDBG, the new plan pre-print has huge implications for Tribes and Tribal Communities; now’s the time for us to come together,” says, Dion Wood, Co-Chair TCCAC and Tribal Employment Rights/ Child Care Director Karuk Tribe, Happy Camp, CA. “Our tribal children, families and communities must be at the fore front of our decisions and the manner in which we process what is taking place and how we can influence the environment for our children,” added Paul Tupaz, Treasurer, TCCAC and Victim Services Manager, Inter-Tribal Council of California. TCCAC Vice-chair, Diane Coe of Redding Rancheria Child Care and Head Start Program Manager says “These past several years, we have focused on drafting some Tribal Health and Safety standards for child care in California; we need to continue this important work. We feel pretty good that we are ahead of the game when it comes to the new proposed standards.”

TCCAC reached out and held consultations with some of our partners at ACF Region IX and California Department of Education to share insight, leverage resources and explore opportunities in the coming year.

TCCAC would like to invite other tribal child care associations and organizations to join us in building partnerships and uniting to provide outreach and support as we all try to navigate and build our way through the new proposed regulations.

Please contact Dion Wood (dwood@karuk.us) or Kim Nall (knall@colusa-nsn.gov), TCCAC Co-chairs for any questions or for information.